Hidden Intentions
by hopesucks
Summary: He is damaged. This, he knows all too well. He has fallen, a sure sign of despair in his veins but still he persists, for he yearns to save the only one that matters. Even if she doesn't know it.


He's busy wiring the connectors in place, distinguishing the red ones from the blue ones and setting the timer just right. His white locks tangling in his hands as he brings it to his forehead to rub off the sweat settling on his forehead as he's crouching on the balls of his feet and Nagito does not even turn around when he hears a voice from behind.

"Step away from the bomb."

The luckster smirks at the tone used against him. It's firm, stern with an air of authority and he inwardly congratulates himself for being able to get the unmasked emotions of hurt and rage out from the girl who he so desires.

But of course, said person doesn't know that.

So, when he does not do as what the other person present ordered him to do, Nagito hears the shuffling of feet from behind moving towards him. He still has his back facing her but he can already feel the air thicken with tension and the atmosphere of the room growing colder as each second passes.

Nagito quietly chuckles to himself, it's ironic that he can feel the hairs of his back stand up from the chills that were probably due to the icy stares boring on his back, when they're in the boiler room which is supposed to be warm.

"Komaeda." she enunciates the second syllable of his name, the warning evident as she practically just snarled at him.

Nagito takes this as a cue to stand up and he slowly turns around to look at his classmate. He still has the smug grin on his face, knowing that even though that he has been caught in the act, he finds this a victory in itself. He's able to release the other side of the gamer, who is now scowling at him.

That is too say, he has greatly affected the pink haired girl in terms of it being a negative one per se.

"Nanami." He greets her because what else can he do? He still has to keep up his front, not wanting the other to know his true intentions. After all, he has been known to many for his cynical skepticism.

"Cut the bullshit, Komaeda." She swears and Nagito has to keep his surprise to himself.

Oh, this is good.

Nanami is standing up to him, eyes furrowed in a frown and her head raised up high as if challenging him. Her arms are at her sides, her hands propping at the hips and he can tell that if he does not move away from the mechanism behind him, a black eye is not the only thing that she will be leaving on him.

"I'm glad you found me, dear class rep." he starts and even though he says something that makes the gamer even more frustrated, she lets him. "I was wondering where you were, actually."

That last statement was true. He has been thinking where she was and how he would have gotten away with her.

"For what?" Nanami blurts, spitting out the words at him. "So that you could pin the blame on _me_?"

The white haired boy winces at her words. What does she think of him as? Was he really that selfish and apathetic? Anyhow, this really had hurt him. How dare she assume that he was going to put the blame on her for blowing up the school, if ever that plan will succeed.

"Ouch, Nanami." He places his hand atop of his chest, the one where his heart resides under, in mock – he acts like it didn't but it really did – hurt. "That really pains me for you to say that."

She scoffs at his words, knows that he is only toying with her, stalling her for time. Time in which Nagito needs to set his plan in motion. Of course, the luckster knows what's going on in her head. She's that caring and selfless as she is.

"I don't believe you." She says.

"Oh, you should, Nanami." He smiles at her, that smile he makes whenever he goes on for another of his rambles on his beliefs on what hope really is. That kind of smile that can make your skin crawl with shudders racking your body. That kind of smile that reads danger. "You should."

She looks at him blankly and silence reigns the room for the next moments.

They're standing on their ground, not moving an inch from their position, waiting for the other person to make a move. At this point, Nagito's hands are now in the insides of the pocket of his jacket, head also raised high.

She's still sporting the same posture when he sees her. Her head still high, her pink eyes glazing with a fiery gaze and her arms are still at her sides, hands now formed in fists.

"Then why?" she whispers, barely a sound and Nagito could almost hear the desperation in the question. "Why do this?"

"Why?" he repeats, making the question louder for the both of them to hear.

Why? Hmm… That is a good question but a question he couldn't let her divulge in his answer. So, he decides to make a bluff.

"You probably know why, Nanami."

Turning his back to her, he continues to ready the necessary procedures, not bothering if she threatens him yet again for doing something so stupid and wrong. When he tinkers with the device, adding more sticks and wires to the pile, he hears nothing from the girl. He finds this odd but does not dwell on it. Maybe she has left.

"You're scared."

Suddenly he whips around to face her and he finds her confused and somehow knowing look on her face, a partial understanding on the situation.

" _What?_ " He yells this out loud, not anymore caring if he gives out his location because seriously. He's _scared?_ That is too far out.

"You're scared." She repeats, conviction laced in her voice.

Okay, that is absolutely wrong, she is wrong, wrong wrong _wrong_! How dare she assume that he is scared when in opposite he is not! He can feel his head boil with rage because Nanami, of all people, called him out for being afraid. Really, what?

"You're scared you won't be able to get out of this." She explains. "You're scared that you'll not be able to live. Scared that the next day someone could kill you, that you don't know what will happen the next day and the next."

"Scared that you will be consumed by the very thing you hate the most: despair."

The luckster watches her then bows his head, silent and another minute passes by and all he could hear is the word _despair_ echoing in his mind. He can feel his whole world darkening and the maddening thoughts appearing in his mind, telling him to just kill himself. He doesn't deserve to be here, doesn't deserve to be called an Ultimate. Hell, Hinata is not even an Ultimate yet he finds the reserve course student on a higher level than himself.

That is until he remembers why he's doing this. Remembers that they are all Ultimate Despair, save for Nanami. He remembers everything they have done to be called as such. The chaos that happened during the fall of Hope's Peak, the killing, the bloodshed, _everything_.

So, he looks up at her, a desperate twinkle in his eyes and laughs at her, because up until the point where he found out the identity of the traitor and finds out that they're actually the good guys, he's been preparing every single moment just to save her, save the only hope that mattered in this godforsaken island.

"You got that wrong."

.

.

.

Much, much, much later, when he wakes up in a pod, wires attached to his frail frame and an all-too disgusting foreign appendage posing as his left arm. Nagito wonders why he finds fourteen – oh wait, make that thirteen Hinata's not really his classmate – of his classmates alive and living, that is until he realizes that the Nanami he had been with was fake, was just an AI, and that the real Nanami had been dead all along.

He grimly smiles to himself for missing that one major detail.


End file.
